Historical collections of Virginia : containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c. relating to its history and antiquities ; together with geographical and statistical descriptions ; to which is appended, an historical and descriptive sketch of the District of Columbia., Part 2

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893. cn
Publication date: 1856
Publisher: Charleston, S. C. : Wm. R. Babcock
Number of Pages: 1148

USA > Virginia > Historical collections of Virginia : containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c. relating to its history and antiquities ; together with geographical and statistical descriptions ; to which is appended, an historical and descriptive sketch of the District of Columbia. > Part 2

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HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION, PROGRESS OF COMMERCE, ROANOKE SETTLEMENTS,

Discovery of America .- England .- Want of Commerce in early times .- Voyages of the Calots-Progress of English discovery-Frobisher-Gilbert -- Raleigh .- Fail- ure of the Roanoke settlements.

THE claims of the leelanders, the Welsh, and even the Norwe- gians,* to the discovery of America, seem in modern times to be universally set aside in favor of a native of a milder clime. In- deed, the evidence by which their respective claims woro sought to be established was so vagne, contradictory, and unsatisfactory,; and their discoveries, if proved, so entirely accidental, and useless to mankind, that it is not at all astonishing that all ine morit should be given to that individual whose brillant gentes Grat de. monstrated a priori the existence of a continent in the western waters, and whose adventurous daring led him to risk his life in the search of a world, of the existence of which he was only in- formed by his science, with little aid of any human experience ; or that posterity should give to Colunas the undivided glory of an exploit for which he received only the ignominy of his contempo- raries, and to Italy the honor due the birthplace of se distingubb. ed a son, from whose brilliant achievements she has received huile else.

In 1460, the Portuguese discovered the Cape de Verd islands, and afterwards extended their discoveries farther south. This ftar prospect of an easier and more direct route to India, had already begun to excite the jealousy of the Venetians, who then nearly monopolized the trade of India, and to elevate the hopes of the Portuguese, who expected to enjoy a portion of the wealth and luxury which the Venetians derived from that trade; when the minds of both, and indeed of all Europe, were turned in another

* Winterbotham's America, vol. I. p. I aad 2, and Hinton's United States.

+ Bancroft's Hist. U. States, vol. I. p. 6, and notes.

1 " L'Italie reparut, avec les divins tresors que ica Grees fugitifs rapportèrent dans son sein ; le ciei lui révéla ses lois ; l'audace de ses enfants decourret un nouvel com phère." --- De Staël-Corinne.

....... . .. .. . . ..... . .. ... . .....

.... ... ...

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direction by the occurrence of an event in the history of maritime discovery, compared with which all others sunk into insignifi- cance.

This event was the discovery of America, by Christopher Colum-

Oct. 11, 1492. bus. The education of this daring mariner, his dis-

appointments and dangers, his difficulties and his brilliant success, or the melancholy story of his sad reverses, and the example afforded in him of the ingratitude of kings, it is not the purpose of the writer to narrate. He refrains from recounting so temptingly interesting a narrative, because it would lead him too far from his purpose, which is only to narrate succinctly the progress of navigation and discovery to the time of the first colo- ny settled in Virginia,-and because the same story has been so well told by Robertson, Irving, and others, that it ought to be fa- miliar to all.

Notwithstanding the advances in navigation which have been enumerated, the art of ship-building was still in such a rude and imperfect state, that the vessels in which Columbus embarked on an unknown sea, a modern mariner, with all the advantages of modern science, would scarcely venture in, to cross the Atlantic. The largest was a vessel of no considerable burden,* and the two others scarcely superior in burden to large boats, and the united crews of the three only amounted to ninety men, including oficers. and a few gentlemen, adventurers from isabella's court.

But notwithstanding these inadequate means for the prosecution of maritime discovery, the ardor of enterprise was so much ex- cited by the brilliant achievements of Columbus, the greedy thirst for gain, and hope of finding some country abounding in gold, to- gether with the eager desire which still prevailed of discovering some passage through the great continent of America, which might lead to India. that in twenty-six years from the first discovery of land by Columbus, the Spaniards had visited all of the islands of the West Indies -- they had sailed on the eastern coast of America from the Rio de la Plata to the western extremity of the Mexican Gulf-they had discovered the great Southern Ocean, and had ac- quired considerable knowledge of the coast of Florida. It is also said that these voyages in search of a nearer passage to the East Indies, had extended much farther north, but not however un'it that country had been discovered by the seamen of another Ba .- tion, of whose exploits in the field of maritime adventure we shall presently speak.

The great interior was still unknown, the whole western and the extreme southeastern coasts were still undiscovered, and the long line of' coast from Florida to Labrador had only been seen, and touched upon in a few places.

England did not at an carly period make those advances in nav- agation, to which the eminent advantages of her insular situation

* Robertson --- Hist. America, 49. .

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invited, and gave no promise of that maritime distinction, and commercial wealth, to which the wise policy of her subsequent rulers have led her to attain. From the times of the conquest to the discovery of America, England had been engaged in perpetual wars, either foreign or domestic ; and thus, while the southern por- tion of Europe and the free cities on the Rhine were advancing so rapidly in opulence and power, England was destitute of even the germ of that naval strength to which she is so much indebted for her present greatness. Every article of foreign growth or fabric which she consumed, was wafted to her shores in the barks of other nations, and the subsequent mistress of the seas scarcely dared to float her flag beyond the limits of her own narrow juris- diction. Scarcely an English ship traded with Spain or Portugal before the beginning of the fifteenth century, and it required an- other half century to give the British mariner courage enough to venture to the east of the Pillars of Hercules .*

Feeble as the marine of England then was, her reigning monarch, Henry VIL, did not lack the spirit, required for undertaking great enterprises, and accident only deprived him of the glory of being the patron of the discoverer of America. Columbus, after the failure of his own native country of Genoa to encourage his great enterprise, and his second rebuff from his adopted country, Portu- gal, fearing another refusal from the king of Castile, to whose court he then directed his steps, dispatched his brother Bartholo- mew to England to solicit the aid of Henry VII., who boing then at peace, was supposed to have leisure to undertake a great enter- prise which promised such renown to himself and emolument to England. Bartholomew was captured by pirates ou his voyage, and robbed of all his effects, which, with an illness that followed, prevented him from presenting himself at court, after he arrived in England, until he could provide himself with suitable apparel by his skill in drawing maps and sea-charts, He Feb. 13, 1488 .¡ brought himself to the notice of Henry by present- ing him with a map, and upon his representing to him the propo- sal of Columbus, he accepted it with "a joyful countenance, and bade him fetch his brother." So much delay had been produced by the circumstances mentioned. that Bartholomew, bastening to Castile, learned at Paris, from Charles, king of France, that his brother Christopher's efforts had already been crowned with the most brilliant success.

When we reflect upon the difficulties which were thrown in the way of Columbus at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, even after they became convinced of the practicability of his scheme,

* Robertson's Virginia, p. 18. 19.

This date is preserved in some curious verses upon the map. of which we give a me- cimen : " Bartholmew Colon de Terra Rubra." " The yeere of Grace, a thousand and four hundred and fourscore" "And eight, and on the thuteenth day of February more," " In London published this worke. To Christ all laud therefore." Hackiyt, vol. III p. 22.

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and the yet more arduous difficulties which he encountered on his voyage, from the mutinous timidity of his crew, we may well doubt whether Henry's courage would have sustained hira in the actual accomplishment of the enterprise, or whether England at that time afforded mariners sufficiently hardy to have persevered a suf- ficient length of time in a seemingly endless voyage upon an un- known sea.

Fortunately, perhaps, for mankind, the courage of England was June 24, 1497. not put to the test of making the first great adven- ture ; and whether she would have succeeded in that or not, she was not destitute of sufficient courage to under- take an enterprise of very considerable magnitude at that day, soon after the existence of land in our western hemisphere had been discovered.

The merit of this new enterprise is also due to a native of Italy, and his motive was the same which prevailed in most of the ad- ventures of the time .-- the desire to discover a new route to India,

Giovanni Gaboto, better known by his anglicised name of John Cabot, a Venetian merchant who had settled at Bristol, obtained - from Henry a charter for himself and his three sons, Lewis, Sebas- tian, and Santius, allowing them full power and authority to sail into all places in the eastern, western, or northern sea, under the banners of England, with five ships, at their own proper costs and charges, to discover countries before unknown to Christians, to plant the banners of England in all such places, and to take pos- session of them, to hold as vassals of England, to have the exclu- sive monopoly of the trade of all such places, paying to the king one-fifth of the clear profits of every voyage. All other persons were prohibited from visiting such places, and the Cabots were bound always to land on their return only at Bristol.

Under this patent, containing "the worst features of colonial monopoly and commercial restriction," John Cabot, and his cele- brated son Sebastian, embarked for the west. The object of Cabot being to discover the passage to India, he pursued a course more northwardly than any selected by previous navigators, and the first land he reached was the coast of Newfoundland, which on that account he named Prima Vista; next the Island of St. John; and finally the continent, among the "polar bears, the rude sav- ages and dismal cliffs of Labrador ;" and this seems to have been the only fruit of the first British voyage to America.

In the following year a new patent was given to John Cabot, Feb. 3, 1498. and the enterprise was conducted by his adventurous and distinguished son, Sebastian. In this expedition, which was undertaken for the purposes of trade as well as dis- covery, several merchants of London took part, and even the king himself. Cabot sailed in a northwest course, in hopes of finding a northwest passage to India, as far probably as the 58th or both degree of latitude, until he was stopped by the quantities of ice which he encountered, and the extreme severity of the weather;

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he then turned his course southward and followed the coast, ac- cording to some writers to the coast of Virginia, and in the opinion of some, as far as the coast of Florida. The only commodities with which he returned to England, as far as our accounts inform us, were three of the natives of the newly discovered countries. He found, upon his return, the king immersed in bis preparations for a war with Scotland, which prevented his engaging in any further prosecution of his discoveries, or entertaining any design of settlement.

It is not our purpose to notice the Portuguese discoveries under Cotereal, the French under Verrazzani and Cartier, or their abor- live attempt at settlements in Canada and New England. Nor shall we notice the extensive inland expedition of the Spaniards under Soto from Florida. through the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, across the Mississippi, and into Louisiana,-or the at- tempts of the French at settlement in Florida and the Carolinas, --- these matters belong rather to the history of the United States, than to the sketch of the history of Virginia which we propose to give. We pass at once to the British attempts at colonization in America.

The progress of maritime adventure extended rapidly. The evidence exists of several English voyages having been made not only to the coast of North America, bat the Levant, the harbors of northern Africa and Brazil. The visits to the fisheries 1548. of Newfoundland had become frequent; and the commerce from that source had become of such importance, and had beca the subject of such long and oppressive exactions, as to require the action of parliament for their prohibition,

India was still the great object with the merchants, and the dis- 1550. covery of a nearer passage than that offered by the Cape of Good Hope, the great desideratum with mariners. The northwestern passage had been attempted thrice by the Cabots in vain ; a northeastern expedition was fitted out, and sailed under the command of Willoughby and Chancellor. Willoughby with his ship's company were found in their vessel frozen to death in a. Lapland harbor; Chancellor with his vessel entered the port of 1554. Archangel, and " discovered" the vast empire of Russia, till then unknown to Western Europe. This discovery led to the hope of establishing an intercourse by means of caravans 1568. across the continent to Persia, and thence to the distant

empire of Cathay.

Elizabeth afforded every encouragement to the maritime enter- prises of her subjects, and especially encouraged the newly estab-

lished intercourse with Russia. The hope of discovering a 1576. northwest passage was by no means as yet relinquished. Martin Frobisher, after revolving in his mind the subject for fif- teen years, believed that it might be accomplished, and " deter- mined and resolved within himself to go and make full proof there. of," "knowing this to be the only thing in the world that was left

-* -

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yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate." Frobisher was too poor to supply himself with the means of carrying his designs into execution ; but after much solici- lation at court he was patronised by Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who supplied him with two small barks, the one of twenty and the other of twenty-five tons burden, and a pinnace of ten tons. With this little fleet he set sail. The expedition was entirely nafor- tunate. One of his barks deserted and returned home, the pinnace went down in a storm, " whereby he lost only four men :" with such small vessels and crews did the hardy mariners of that day ven- ture to cross the Atlantic. The Admiral's mast was sprung, and the top-mast blown overboard, by the same storm in which he lost the pinnace; but, nothing daunted, he persevered, and entered Hud- son's Bay; The only thing accomplished by the voyage was the taking possession of the cold and barren wilderness in the name of Elizabeth, carrying home some of the gravel and stones, one of the latter of which, resembling gold, or probably having some gold artificially mingled with it after it reached London, caused the gold retiners nearly to go mad, and the merchants to under- take one of the wildest expeditions recorded in the annals of dis- covery ; besides this show of gold, which was pronounced very rich for the quantity, the only other acquisition was a poor native, whose simplicity was imposed upon by the most treacherous de- vices, until he was decoyed to the English vessel, and then seized by force, aud carried away from his friends. He bit off his tongue from despair, and died soon after his arrival in England, from cold taken on the voyage.

The mania which the story of the little bit of gold produced in 1577. London caused a fleet of several vessels to be fitted out, of

which the queen herself furnished one, to bring home the rich produce of these icy mines. The ships returned with black earth, but no gold.

The spirit of avarice was not to be stopped in her career by & 1578. single failure; a new fleet of fifteen vessels was fitted out,

and to Martin Frobisher was given the command. A colony was to be planted for the purpose of working the mines, while twelve vessels were to be sent home with ore. After almost in- credible difficulties, encountered amid storms and " mountains of floating ice on every side," the loss of some vessels, and the descr- tion of others, they reached the northern Potosi, and the ships were well laden with the black earth ; but the colonists, being disheartened by their hardships, declined settling on the coast, and all returned to England. We are not informed of the value of the proceeds of the cargo.

While the British queen and her merchants were indulging themselves in fancies as brilliant and as evanescent as the icebergs which encumbered the scene of the delusion, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a man of insuperable energy and fearless enterprise, formed a design of promoting the fisheries, and engaging in useful colonization.

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With this view he obtained a patent of the same character with June 11, 1578. most of those which were granted to the early pro-

moters of colonization in America, conferring un- bounded privileges upon the proprietor, and guarantying no rights to the colonists. The first expedition, in which Gilbert had

expended much of his private fortune, failed, -- from what 1579. cause is uncertain.

The second expedition, undertaken four years afterwards, was 1583. and accomplished projector of the expedition. Five vessels still more unfortunate ; for it lost to the world the gallant sailed from Plymouth on Tuesday, the 11th of June, 1583. Two days afterward, the vice-admiral complained of sickness aboard, and returned with the finest ship in the fleet to Plymouth. The admiral, nevertheless, continued his course with his little squadron, and took possession, with the fendal ceremony, of Newfoundland. to be held by him as a fief of the crown of England, in accordance with the terms of his charter.

The looseness of morals displayed by the mariners of that day is truly disgusting, and increases our wonder at the daring of men who could venture so far from home, in such frail barks, with almost a certainty of encountering on the great highway, in their fellow-men, greater perils than were presented by all the terrors of the deep. Robbery by sea was too common, and often com- mitted in violation of the most sacred obligations, even upon per- sons engaged in the very act of relieving the distress of the depre- dators .* Gilbert seems to have been cursed with a remarkably riotous and insubordinate company. The sick and disaffected were left at Newfoundland to be sent home with the Swallow, and the admiral proceeded with his three remaining barks.

On Tuesday the 20th of August they sailed from the harbor of St. Johns, and on the 29th, in about latitude 44 degrees, the largest remaining vessel. by the carelessness of the crew, struck, and went to pieces, and the other barks were forced by a high sea and a lee shore to struggle for their own preservation, which they accom- plished with difficulty,-alleging, at the same time, that they could see none of the crew of the wreck floating upon timbers, but all seemed to have gone down when the ship broke up. A few, bow- ever, escaped to Newfoundland in the ship's pinnace, as was after- wards discovered.

This calamity, followed by continual storms, in an unknown and shoaly sea, enhanced by an extreme scantiness of provisions, and want of clothes and comforts in the two little barks which yet Aug. 31. tion of his men, to return homeward. Sir Humphrey remained, induced the admiral, at the earnest solicita. Gilbert was vehemently persuaded by the crew of the Golden Hind to remain with them during the voyage : but, as some malicious taunts had been thrown out by some evil-disposed person, accusing

* See a remarkable instance in Hacklyi, vol. IIf., 191, 19G, Se.

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him of being afraid of the sea, he chose to continue to sail in his little pinnace, the Squirrel, which was burdened beyond her strength.

After the vessels had left the Azores to the south, and reached the latitude of England, they encountered violent and continued storms. On Monday, the 9th of September, the Squirrel was nearly cast away, but recovered, and the admiral was seen sitting abaft with a book in his hand, and heard to cry out to those in the Hind, " We are as near to heaven by sea as by land." That same night, at 12 o'clock, the Squirrel being in advance, her light suddenly disappeared, and ber hardy crew, with their gallant commander, Sept. 22. sleep forever in the deep. The Hind reached Falmouth

in safety, but after encountering eminent peril to the last moment .*

The daring spirit of the mariners of that day is amazing. Sir Walter Raleigh, the step-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, so far from being intimidated by the melancholy fate of his relative, or disheartened by the unprofitable and disastrous termination of March 25, 1584. most of the voyages to America. undertook in the very next year an expedition to the coast of the · present United States. Ho easily obtained one of the usual in- limited patents from Elizabeth, and, leaving the cold north, with its barren snows, its storms, icebergs, and certain evils, together with its imaginary wealth, he spread his sails for the sweet south, where he was sure to find a fertile soil and a delightful climate, though his ship's company might not all be enriched by the dis- covery of gold.

On the second of July they found shoal water, " and smelt so sweet and strong a smell, as if they had been in the midst of some delicate garden abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers."

On the 13th they entered Ocracock inlet, on the coast of the present state of North Carolina, and landed on Wocoken Island. They commenced an intercourse with the natives, who proved to be bold, confiding, intelligent, and honorable to their friends, but treacherous, revengeful, and cruel towards their enemies.

The English explored a little the surrounding islands and bays, and returned home in September. carrying with them two natives. Manteo and Wanchese. The glowing description given by the adventurers, on their return, of the beauty of the country, the fer- tility of the soil, and pleasantness of the climate, delighted the queen, and induced her to name the country of which she had inken possession, Virginia, in commemoration of her unmarried life.

It might be expected that so favorable an account would soon 1585. lead to a new expedition. Accordingly, another was pro- pared for the succeeding year, consisting of seven vessels.

* Hacklyt, III., 184 to 202

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Ralph Lane was appointed by Raleigh governor of the colony, which consisted of one hundred and eight persons. Sir Richard Grenville took command of the fleet, and several learned and accomplished men attended the expedition, one of whom has trans- mitted to posterity many interesting particulars of the nature of the country, and the habits, manners, and government of its in- habitants.

The English soon began to maltreat the harmless, unpretending, July 11, 1586. and simple natives, and they, or. the other hand, to

grow jealous of the power of the overbearing strangers. They soon learned the inordinate passion of the new- comers for gold, and, taking advantage of their credulity, inflicted upon them the labor of many fruitless expeditions in search of pretended mines,-hoping at the same time, by these divisions, to weaken the power of the little colony to such a degree that they might be able to destroy it in detachment ; but the English were too cautious for this, and went too short a distance, and in force too powerful for the Indians to encounter with the great disparity of arms. The greatest advantage which accrued from these expe- ditions, and indeed from the whole attempt at a settlement, was the discovery of Chesapeake Bay.

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Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893. cn Publication date: 1856 Publisher: Charleston, S. C. : Wm. R. Babcock Number of Pages: 1148

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893. cn
Publication date: 1856
Publisher: Charleston, S. C. : Wm. R. Babcock
Number of Pages: 1148